Shepherd Ndudzo’s celebrated sculptures tell an untold history of southern African art

Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti

THE work of award-winning Zimbabwe-born sculptor Shepherd Ndudzo is instantly recognisable. Fluid, elongated black bodies and body parts flow from white rock in a typical work. The bodies are dancing or praying, holding hands or reaching out.

These figurative sculptures, carved out of stone (marble and granite) and wood (ironwood), were recently shown along with his abstract wooden sculptures (titled Seed) at the FNB Joburg Art Fair in South Africa by Botswana’s Ora Laopi contemporary art gallery and research project.

The work by the artist (born in 1978) was displayed as a celebration of the sculpture of Botswana, where he lives and works. The show was dedicated to his father, Barnabas Ndudzo, the famed creator of realistic, often life-size sculptures. In a documentary produced by the gallery, Shepherd tells how he was taught to sculpt by his father. He says that his works speak about migration and